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Prolific British second-feature director Lewis Gilbert made his cinematic debut with The Little Ballerina. Yvonne Marsh stars as a girl of modest means who hopes to get into the Sadlers-Wells ballet troupe. Her only hope is to win a scholarship, and to this end she pleads directly to the troupe's star performer Margot Fonteyn. The spectre of the successful 1948 ballet movie The Red Shoes looms large over the thriftily assembled Little Ballerina. The film's highlight is a vignette from Les Sylphides, performed by Margot Fonteyn and a talented group of dancing students. Although production wrapped on this film -- and it was classified in the UK -- circa late April 1947, The Little Ballerina didn't receive its stateside release for several years, premiering on the near side of the Atlantic in March 1951 - hence the presence of British actor George Carney, who died in 1948.